Nine projects have been awarded £660,000 from the Intellectual Property Office to take their innovative ideas into the marketplace

Nine projects have been awarded £660,000 from the Intellectual Property Office to help businesses take their innovative ideas off the drawing board and into the marketplace.

The prizes, which were awarded as part of this year’s Fast Forward competition, were given out during a ceremony at the University of Birmingham by Intellectual Property Minister, Lord Younger. The winners will each receive funding of between £40,000 and £99,000 for their projects in the horticulture, sport, education, healthcare and games industries.

The Fast Forward competition encourages universities and Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs) to work collaboratively with businesses and local communities to maximise the benefits of innovation and intellectual property. The competition has been running for the past 4 years and has now given more than £2.7 million in funding to 44 projects.

Minister for Intellectual Property, Lord Younger said:

"The UK is a nation of inventors, and each year we see cases of successful businesses that have turned their innovative ideas into products and services for the UK and international markets. Our world-class universities are a key driver of this innovation and we should always look to find new ways of working with them to better support businesses and drive economic growth.

"This is why I am so pleased to see so many innovative applications to the Fast Forward competition. The competition this year was tough. I would like to congratulate this year’s winners on their success and I will follow their progress with interest."

The projects that were awarded funding this year through the Fast Forward competition are:

Royal Botanic Garden: Horticulture Micropropogation Services - a project that will help small plant breeders to source affordable and flexible services to develop new plant varieties

University of Abertay Dundee: Investing in Digital Assets - this project will work with game developers to help them identify and value their intellectual property

University of Stirling: Sports innovation challenge – a project that will link in with the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup to give entrepreneurial students the opportunity to come up with sports company ideas; the best ideas will be supported by the university to form new companies

University of Oxford: Encouraging IP uptake for SMEs – a project that will support a new scheme offered by Oxford Isis Innovation that will make it easy and affordable for small and medium businesses to create new intellectual property

University of Dundee: Technology Accelerator Program – this project is designed to bring together students, university staff, industry and SMEs to look at the commercial potential of platform technology

Nottingham Trent University: Nottingham Creative IP Project – this project will provide businesses and students in the creative industries with a better understanding of how they can protect their IP

Cardiff University: Health Technology Challenge – this project aims to increase innovation in the NHS to find solutions to help healthcare practitioners to deliver better care for patients

Lancaster University: Philanthropic crowd-funding of IP through the ‘valley of death’ – this project will develop a new model to overcome the stalling of inventions between academic research and industrial application by trialling internet-based public crowd-funding to support patented medical research

Government Funding Boost For Innovative Businesses

Nine projects have been awarded £660,000 from the Intellectual Property Office to take their innovative ideas into the marketplace

by Viscount Younger of Leckie

(WireNews) - London, England - 13 March 2014

Department for Innovation & Skills

Nine projects have been awarded £660,000 from the Intellectual Property Office to help businesses take their innovative ideas off the drawing board and into the marketplace.

The prizes, which were awarded as part of this year’s Fast Forward competition (http://www.ipo.gov.uk/fastforward.htm), were given out during a ceremony at the University of Birmingham by Intellectual Property Minister, Lord Younger. The winners will each receive funding of between £40,000 and £99,000 for their projects in the horticulture, sport, education, healthcare and games industries.

The Fast Forward competition encourages universities and Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs) to work collaboratively with businesses and local communities to maximise the benefits of innovation and intellectual property. The competition has been running for the past 4 years and has now given more than £2.7 million in funding to 44 projects.

Minister for Intellectual Property, Lord Younger said:

"The UK is a nation of inventors, and each year we see cases of successful businesses that have turned their innovative ideas into products and services for the UK and international markets. Our world-class universities are a key driver of this innovation and we should always look to find new ways of working with them to better support businesses and drive economic growth.

"This is why I am so pleased to see so many innovative applications to the Fast Forward competition. The competition this year was tough. I would like to congratulate this year’s winners on their success and I will follow their progress with interest."

The projects that were awarded funding this year through the Fast Forward competition are:

Royal Botanic Garden: Horticulture Micropropogation Services - a project that will help small plant breeders to source affordable and flexible services to develop new plant varieties

University of Abertay Dundee: Investing in Digital Assets - this project will work with game developers to help them identify and value their intellectual property

University of Stirling: Sports innovation challenge – a project that will link in with the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup to give entrepreneurial students the opportunity to come up with sports company ideas; the best ideas will be supported by the university to form new companies

University of Oxford: Encouraging IP uptake for SMEs – a project that will support a new scheme offered by Oxford Isis Innovation that will make it easy and affordable for small and medium businesses to create new intellectual property

University of Dundee: Technology Accelerator Program – this project is designed to bring together students, university staff, industry and SMEs to look at the commercial potential of platform technology

Nottingham Trent University: Nottingham Creative IP Project – this project will provide businesses and students in the creative industries with a better understanding of how they can protect their IP

Cardiff University: Health Technology Challenge – this project aims to increase innovation in the NHS to find solutions to help healthcare practitioners to deliver better care for patients

Lancaster University: Philanthropic crowd-funding of IP through the ‘valley of death’ – this project will develop a new model to overcome the stalling of inventions between academic research and industrial application by trialling internet-based public crowd-funding to support patented medical research

This year more than 60 entries were received for the competition.

For more information about this press release visit https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-funding-boost-for-innovative-businesses (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-funding-boost-for-innovative-businesses)

Government Funding Boost For Innovative Businesses

Nine projects have been awarded £660,000 from the Intellectual Property Office to take their innovative ideas into the marketplace

by Viscount Younger of Leckie

(WireNews) - London, England - 13 March 2014

Department for Innovation & Skills

Nine projects have been awarded £660,000 from the Intellectual Property Office to help businesses take their innovative ideas off the drawing board and into the marketplace.

The prizes, which were awarded as part of this year’s Fast Forward competition (http://www.ipo.gov.uk/fastforward.htm), were given out during a ceremony at the University of Birmingham by Intellectual Property Minister, Lord Younger. The winners will each receive funding of between £40,000 and £99,000 for their projects in the horticulture, sport, education, healthcare and games industries.

The Fast Forward competition encourages universities and Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs) to work collaboratively with businesses and local communities to maximise the benefits of innovation and intellectual property. The competition has been running for the past 4 years and has now given more than £2.7 million in funding to 44 projects.

Minister for Intellectual Property, Lord Younger said:

"The UK is a nation of inventors, and each year we see cases of successful businesses that have turned their innovative ideas into products and services for the UK and international markets. Our world-class universities are a key driver of this innovation and we should always look to find new ways of working with them to better support businesses and drive economic growth.

"This is why I am so pleased to see so many innovative applications to the Fast Forward competition. The competition this year was tough. I would like to congratulate this year’s winners on their success and I will follow their progress with interest."

The projects that were awarded funding this year through the Fast Forward competition are:

Royal Botanic Garden: Horticulture Micropropogation Services - a project that will help small plant breeders to source affordable and flexible services to develop new plant varieties

University of Abertay Dundee: Investing in Digital Assets - this project will work with game developers to help them identify and value their intellectual property

University of Stirling: Sports innovation challenge – a project that will link in with the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup to give entrepreneurial students the opportunity to come up with sports company ideas; the best ideas will be supported by the university to form new companies

University of Oxford: Encouraging IP uptake for SMEs – a project that will support a new scheme offered by Oxford Isis Innovation that will make it easy and affordable for small and medium businesses to create new intellectual property

University of Dundee: Technology Accelerator Program – this project is designed to bring together students, university staff, industry and SMEs to look at the commercial potential of platform technology

Nottingham Trent University: Nottingham Creative IP Project – this project will provide businesses and students in the creative industries with a better understanding of how they can protect their IP

Cardiff University: Health Technology Challenge – this project aims to increase innovation in the NHS to find solutions to help healthcare practitioners to deliver better care for patients

Lancaster University: Philanthropic crowd-funding of IP through the ‘valley of death’ – this project will develop a new model to overcome the stalling of inventions between academic research and industrial application by trialling internet-based public crowd-funding to support patented medical research

This year more than 60 entries were received for the competition.

For more information about this press release visit https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-funding-boost-for-innovative-businesses (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-funding-boost-for-innovative-businesses)